For the third time in just over two years, Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo has survived an attempt to remove him from office. On Wednesday morning the Senate voted overwhelmingly to uphold a preliminary objection, killing the latest impeachment motion before it reached a full hearing.
Thirty-eight senators backed the objection while only four opposed it, ending proceedings that had been triggered by the county assembly on 11 November.
Governor Nyaribo’s legal team, led by Elias Mutuma, convinced the House that the motion was fundamentally flawed from the start.
They argued it failed to meet constitutional thresholds and was tainted by fraud after only nineteen members were physically present yet twenty-three votes were recorded in favour. The assembly’s reliance on proxy voting was dismissed as illegal and “numerically impossible”.
The Senate decision marks a hat-trick of victories for the governor. His first brush with impeachment came in October 2023 when MCA Josiah Mang’era brought twelve charges ranging from illegal recruitment to flagging off empty containers as medical supplies. That motion collapsed at the assembly, attracting only sixteen votes instead of the required two-thirds majority.
Less than a year later, in September 2024, nominated MCA Evans Matunda tried again. The second attempt came agonisingly close but still failed by a single vote when twenty-two MCAs supported it, one short of the twenty-three needed at the time.
After Wednesday’s vote, Governor Nyaribo thanked senators for “defending the rule of law” and pledged to focus fully on serving Nyamira residents without further distraction. Assembly leaders left Parliament visibly frustrated and promised to study the ruling before deciding whether to pursue fresh grounds.
The repeated failure of impeachment motions in Nyamira highlights the high legal and political bar governors face, while exposing persistent tensions between the executive and ward representatives in the county.
